# Lord of the Flies on BBC **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [January 29, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171 "2026-01-29T23:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/1 "2026-01-29T23:49:25Z")
Four one-hour episodes drop on iPlayer on Sunday, February 8th. Then they show them on the regular channels over the weeks to follow. [Presumed BBC link all can read with trailer](https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2026/lord-of-the-flies-trailer) It looks pretty close to the book: Wartime evacuation of a rich British boys’ school. Some of the background characters may be Indian or Asian, yet I find it plausible whether or not Golding made mention. Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are white kids. On another site, it said it was unknown when it would be shown in the USA and on which streaming service. Sorry for announcing the premiere of a TV series that most of you can’t yet watch. And I know many here despise the book. IIRC, in the USA, it was part of English class, circa 9th grade - the age of the boys - to read it. Horrific, yet again quite plausible. I remember when I saw Princess Bride and William Golding as the author, thinking, “This is the guy who wrote Lord of the Flies?” So, there you are. Good luck storming the castle! ---
**Author:** ![SwissMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@SwissMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwissMan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/2 "2026-01-29T23:56:32Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I remember when I saw Princess Bride and William Golding as the author, thinking, “This is the guy who wrote Lord of the Flies?” I’m not sure if you meant this as a joke or not, but William _Goldman_ was the author of _The Princess Bride._ Although, he did also write _Marathon Man,_ so the point about his incongruous works does still stand. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/3 "2026-01-29T23:57:15Z")
Well, I loved the book. I dunno how I’ll feel about an adaptation. I’m a bit squeamish. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/4 "2026-01-30T00:00:23Z")
Nope, ignorance and confusion confession. The wiki for William Goldman even says > Not to be confused with [William Golding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Golding). ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/5 "2026-01-30T00:09:05Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I dunno how I’ll feel about an adaptation The Guardian is usually a fair reviewer. I’ll post a link presumably before it’s shown. Yet four hours gives a lot of time to cover the main points. I first thought it’d be the usual BBC six, so this might be just enough screen time. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/6 "2026-01-30T00:09:47Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > And I know many here despise the book. IIRC, in the USA, it was part of English class, circa 9th grade - the age of the boys - to read it. I read it at the time, but I didn’t hate it. I remember that “Sucks to your ass-mar” caught on for a while after we read that book 🤣 I guess because “sucks to your…” Was such an alien Britishism to us ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/7 "2026-01-30T00:33:13Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > “Sucks to your ass-mar” Back when she was healthy, my late wife and I used it on each other whenever somebody was being a wimp. No mercy for the weak. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/8 "2026-01-30T04:40:42Z")
I was 14 when the original movie came out. Then I read the book, which the movie seemed to follow pretty well, but the written narration added some, especially to the ending – as Ralph was weeping on the beach for “the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.” I was very down for a while afterwards, it was a shock to me that adolescent boys might behave like that. I had not known anyone like Jack or his henchmen, who seem to me now to have been psycho- (or socio-) paths. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/9 "2026-01-30T08:00:42Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > it was a shock to me that adolescent boys might behave like that. I had not known anyone like Jack or his henchmen, who seem to me now to have been psycho- (or socio-) paths. I think the point is that you don’t - can’t - know that when you first meet the characters. Given the time in which Golding was writing, and the world had lived through, it’s not surprising that was why it was a set text in my school, as a warning. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/10 "2026-01-30T12:17:41Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > “Sucks to your ass-mar” I don’t know if the book remains in the curriculum in the UK. So the term would be borderline extinct, though the series might bring it back temporarily. If said to someone (not in the loop), it would sound like an insult, and only possibly like a Golding reference. - It was \*_schoolyard slang_ not adult slang - It peaked mid-20th century It depended on: - Kids weaponizing _mispronunciation_ - A shared cultural cruelty that’s mostly gone or transformed ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/11 "2026-01-30T14:24:59Z")
I agree it’s highly anachronistic now. Unless LoTF is still prescribed literature in some secondary schools. As it was in my high school in 1970s SoCal USA. But I think this last bit > [@Coriolanus](#): > > A shared cultural cruelty that’s mostly gone or transformed might fly in the face of actual kidly practice. I don’t deal with the ~6 to ~12yo set very often. And certainly not in large groups. But I bet they’re exactly as selfish, heartless, and casually cruel as they ever were. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/12 "2026-01-30T18:11:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But I bet they’re exactly as selfish, heartless, and casually cruel as they ever were. I was glad they didn’t think, "Movie? It’s been done, and decided to modernize it somehow to demonstrate what you say - kids are not really different now. I don’t recall the length of (days passed) in the book from the crash, yet if a group of rich kids flying in a prop Beechcraft were island hopping in the Pacific and had to make an emergency landing, there may not be enough time to fall from civilization to savagery before rescue arrives. ETA: Though The Simpsons did a take on the book and it was like a few days before the separate groups of savages. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/13 "2026-01-30T18:13:59Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Kids weaponizing _mispronunciation_ Maybe I misremember but I thought it was Jack and Co who didn’t know how to say “asthma”, not Piggy ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/14 "2026-01-30T18:19:10Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > yet if a group of rich kids flying in a prop Beechcraft were island hopping in the Pacific and had to make an emergency landing, there may not be enough time to fall from civilization to savagery before rescue arrives. You just have to add a line about how they took the plane without one of their dads knowing or something ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/15 "2026-01-30T18:24:51Z")
Elevator pitch: Group of high school kids, one of them a qualified junior pilot, steal a small prop-job plane and are last tracked in the Pacific 300 miles from San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/16 "2026-01-30T18:44:26Z")
Note the [real-life incident in 1965 when six teenage boys from Tonga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways) ran away from boarding school on a stolen boat. They were shipwrecked on an uninhabited island for fifteen months, though they did not turn to savagery. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/17 "2026-01-30T19:25:37Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Maybe I misremember but I thought it was Jack and Co who didn’t know how to say “asthma”, not Piggy As I recall it (and how I recall it I can’t explain - the book wasn’t very formative to me) - Piggy has _asthma_ and says the word correctly. - Jack and the boys _deliberately_ twist it into ass-mar" - The cruelty is not ignorance, it’s _mockery_. So the mispronunciation isn’t accidental or childish misunderstanding — it’s a _conscious_ distortion used to: - Infantilize Piggy - Reduce a medical condition to a joke and be extra cruel - Strip him of authority and dignity I reckon that’s the key point Golding is making. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/18 "2026-01-30T19:35:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > might fly in the face of actual kidly practice. I don’t deal with the ~6 to ~12yo set very often. And certainly not in large groups. But I bet they’re exactly as selfish, heartless, and casually cruel as they ever were. I don’t know. Kids seem more pro-social than they used to be, to me. Just based on how they have treated my son, who is not an easy kid to get along with. I always thought the point of _Lord of the Flies_ is that these kids were coming from a culture at war and thus their behavior was influenced by the violence around them. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/19 "2026-01-30T19:56:58Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I always thought the point of _Lord of the Flies_ is that these kids were coming from a culture at war and thus their behavior was influenced by the violence around them. The book must still hold a copyright as I can’t find it on Project Gutenberg. Some interviews though he seems to be saying, sure, the boys come from a culture formed by war. The takeaway is rather bleak yet fairly specific: > Civilisation doesn’t fail because people are ignorant > It fails because they already know how violence works So the boys don’t _learn_ brutality on the island — they **reproduce it**. The island doesn’t corrupt them — it _reveals_ them ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171/20 "2026-01-30T20:00:05Z")
Kinda like Hobbes wrote back in 16xx. Humans are naturally brutes. Civilization is the process of training them to subordinate those impulses for the good of all. Which also mostly accrues to their own advantage even if they can’t quite see that. Coupled with government enforcement to make sure the lesson stays learned. If the enforcement vanishes for whatever reason, brutishness will start emerging immediately and will overwhelm civilized impulses pretty quickly. Then if the next generation doesn’t teach civilization, the accumulated gains of millennia are swept way in two generations. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-flies-on-bbc/1027171.md?page=2)